THE GREAT ESCAPE ARTIST

I am not like some of these people who veiw their pets as their kids like some people one reads about.
My dog Sandy obtained from a lady who had five or 6 dogs & had decided to decrease the dog population at her home. He was I believe from what she said 5 years old at the time. He came with a name, which not being a Three Stooges fan, I promptly changed from "Mo" to Sandy, suggested by the color of his hair. Sandy, I was told was a cockapoo. I have since thought that a more appropriate name might have been Houdini, because during the 8 years, I have had him, he has made many daring escapes from my fenced backyard. I live on a busy street so it has been a source of worry & frustration when these escapes have occured.
Last night I went to an hour long band concert down the road from where I live, secure so I thought with the knowledge that Sandy was safe in my gated fenced yard.
On my return as I pulled into the garage, along with my car,in trotted my happy companion along with my van.
OK I had had my handy mn friend repair a broken board with a temporary fix on the gate< ( a board fastened with screws covering the board he had broken & unhapily got his paw stuck in a week or so ago) This was still intact. The gate was still closed with the two peices of concrete still blocked in front of the opening. He used to push the heavy gate until it opened. One other spot to check, & that was a broken board next to the gargage on the bottom of the other gate. The gate by the way consists of two huge heavy doors that open out.
There of course was the new escape route. I had previously blocked this wonderful exit by pileing a couple of firewood log pieces against the hole, & Sandy faced with this chalanged had managed once again to push them out of the way. I put them back in place, planning on blocking the hole on the inside of the gate with a piece of concrete if I could manage to drag it over to the spot, this morning when it would be daylight & I could see what I was doing.
Now one would think that this 13 year old dog who employs a lot of his day sleeping,either in the house or on the back porch would not be energetic enough at this point in his life to plan & carry out one of his escapes.
A few years back there were many late night & daytime serches of the neighborhood in all kinds of weather, while I with leash in hand, & flahlight if the case might be,combed the neighborhood, trying to find him. At times if it was in the daytime, I would spot him & call to him, whereupon with out fail, he would look at me & take of running. This particular game, I did not relish participating in. I have seen him almost get hit as he dashed across my busy street. There were numerous prayers on his behalf first that I could find him & second for the Lord's protection while he was out & about. One of the last times he made a daylight escape, I had driven into the garage & as soon as I stepped out of the car, he was off & running. Not wanting to lose time by getting his leash, I started up the street in hot persuit, but did have my car keys on one of those type of things, one wheres around ones neck. Mine says Navy on it & was given to me by a friend. A few doors down, I was able to trap him in a neighbor's yard, hold him down & attach the " Navy" thing to the ring on his collar, & leaning down because of the length of my makeshift leash, drag a reluctant Sandy back home. I'm hoping against hope that one day he will decide that we are both getting too old for this type of adventure. He has a nice deck equiped with a comfortable dog house for his outside time & a nice pad to sleep on in my room at night. What more does he want for goodness sakes?

OOOPS I GOOFED,MULTPLE POSTS,

Just when I was begining to feel a little proud of my self,getting started in the wonderful world of Blogging,I get an e-mail from my darling daughter telling me that one of my posts was on more than once. She is always the encourager & is ever helpfull to me in my struggle to master the computer. She is slightly amused & even added a te he(laugh) since it was on the one I wrote about does anyone understand the computer.
It is very obvious that I do not, & it is ironic that this particular post was the one to multiply itself like a family of rabbits. Though embarassed I too see the humor of it. She has tried to tell me how to remove the offender but guess I'll have to wait until we're together so she can show me.
I also do not know how to use spell check on my blogs.
E-mails yes, blogs no. It is amazing how words seem to get mispelled so easily when one is using the computer.
There are times when I think my fingers are suffering from dyslexia especially on 3 letter words.

Sometimes I wonder how the Lord veiws our struggles.
I'm sure that at times He wishes that He could lend a helping hand, but knows that we learn from our mistakes. We teach our children by word & example, but also realize that they have to be able to try
to do things for themselves & we would rob them of a feeling of accomplishment, if we were to step in & do it for them.

I know that I will keep trying, & will I'm sure make big blog boo boos, but it is important as we age to keep our minds active, & this is one way to do it, since it requires learning a new skill. ( I hope this only goes in once)

HAWAII CALLS

How do you explain a fascination and love for a place you have never seen except for pictures or scenes in a movie?

I don't remember time wise when this happened, in my past, but at some point my favorite musical program on radio, might have inspired my dreaming of Hawaii.
A clue perhaps might be found in the name of the program, & might provide in part the answer the
strange drawing I have felt for years to this faraway place. The name of the program was "Hawaii Calls" Every week I tried to remember the time & station it was on so I could listen to the soothing sounds of the beautiful Hawaiian melodies, sung & played at that faraway station.

One of my favorite movies was "Song Of The Islands which I saw 4 differnent times, staring a favorite of mine, Betty Grable. I don't think Hawaii was the Island of the film, but Hawaii represents to me the Polynesian culture.

Hawaii has changed over the years & is not like the original unspoiled state it once was.
Honolulu, is a large city, populated by many from the mainland who have been drawn to it's shores.
In spite of the modern city, I'm hoping to find the Hawaii of my dreams.

I love the musical sounds of the language. My name, Ruth, in Hawaiian is Luka, according to the key ring my daughter brought back to me from their trip.
I'm excited about going to this place theatI have dreamed of for years.
We will be visiting the memorial site at Pearl Harbor, where the Battleship Arizona lies buried in the water, one of the mighty battleships destroyed that fatal day. In our innocence or perhaps ignorance, we had all of our Battleships lined up in rows where they made ready targets for the attacking planes.
We leanred of this on our radio, that fateful Sunday long ago, as we listened in stunned silence to the announcement of the attack. Later we would learn the details of the tremedous loss of life that had occured on December 7th, 1941. A Day That Will Live In Infamy, as our president aptly put it.

We will be exploring this city, my sister & I, sharing that special bond that only sisters have. We who are so different in some ways, yet so alike in others.
Through the years we have been there for each other when we each lost a beloved spouse. I'm so glad that the Lord brought another special someone into her life to share her remaining years.

Perhaps the Hawaii of my dreams will be found at the Polynesian Village listed on the tentative iternerary.
The real Hawaii I think might be found in part with the people of Polyneseian decent, in their traditions, customs & language. I have always heard that Aloha means both hello & goodby. Come November, Lord willing, we will be greeted with Aloha,at the airport when we arrive and with some reluctance on my part, I'm sure when we leave & say Aloha to this magical place of my dreams.
Thanks sis, I'm looking forward to it

In The Good Old Summertime

There is always that excitement for a kid at the end of the school year & anticipation for that time known as summer vacation.

As a child growing up in the 30's, there wasn't money to buy things except for the necessities, such as food & clothing. However thanks to an uncle who lived in Cleveland & who had a daughter my sister's age, we were each given a scooter, & another time, a pair of rollerskates. He had a good paying job so he had the money to buy them for us. My aunt & uncle had lost two older children, their oldest ddaughter, Arleen who would have been my older brother's age, from a burst
appendix at age 8, & Marion 8 months old who fell victim to 1918 flu epedemic. I think he enjoyed spoiling us a little.

We also played games, such as Hide & Seek, Red Rover(also played at school), & someimes in the evening a rousing game of Kick The Can. Yes we actually kicked a tin can around in a game. This was played in the street, since there were few cars then. Sidewalks provided a place to draw squares for Hop Scotch, & to bounce a small ball on for playing Jacks.

I was always fascinated by the stars,& loved to lay in the grass on a summers night & look up at them. Once I had a little toy telescope that I could look through at them. When we lived in the small town of Freemont, there used to be a lot of lightning bugs which I mentioned in another post & my sister & I had fun watching & catching them.

When my sister & I were quite small we loved to take our dolls out side & have a tea party. Mom also showed up how to make little Hollyhock dolls. I don't remember too much about what they looked like ,other than the flowers were upside down, with the flower part as the skirt. We may have used a tooth pick to hold them together.

Summertime was a time to dream & use our imagination. As we got old enough, we would put on shows with the neighbor children. We sang songs & put on plays.

My sister & I love to play dress up & mom always had a ready supply of things we could use as costumes & outfits to wear for what ever we were dressing up as.

With all that children have now, computer games & fancy toys, I hope that they don't lose that wonderful gift of imagination. I've been delighted at seeing & interacting with my little granddaughters when they have acted out a made up story & I'm happy to see my daughter encouraging them to use their imagination.

COMPUTERS, DOES ANYONE UNDERSTAND THEM?

Yesterday I spent a very frustrating day. I had decided to get the faster service my server offered, & not being that knowledgable, had my friend Kathi go through the process for me. Now you would think that this would be a simple thing, right? wrong. The first problem occured when they rejected my sign in name, so she changed it slightly by adding a 1 after it & added a new password.. All went well temorarily. Yesterday I called to try & change my password back to the original one. In talking to tech number one, I discovered I now had two open accounts. She did a few things on her computer, including getting rid of account number one & changed the password.
I tried to get on line, nothing. I put in another call & talked to tech number 2. After waiting a long time again, of course. I explained the problem, not being able to go on line , the change in service etc. & tech number 2 again did something on his computer & said it should work. You guessed it, it didn't. Call number 3 with again another long wait, by this time it is afternoon. Finally I was able to sucessfully get on line. Is this the end of my story? No of course not.
I went to my blog & was going to put in an entry, & you guessed it. In the change over, somehow my blog name & password was lost. With the help of support help, I was able to change my password, since I couldn't remember the original one. I'm back Hurray, I can post & ad comments to the wonderful bloggers I
visit.

grandmothersmusings

COMPUTERS, DOES ANYONE UNDERSTAND THEM?

Yesterday I spent a frustrating day trying to get back on line. I had decided to go with the faster speed my server offered. Not quite understanding fully the process I asked my friend Kathi to do it for me.
Now you would think that this would be a simple process, right? First they rejected my sign in name & password, She changed the name slightly by adding a i after it, & put in a new password.
Yesterday I called Customer service. I requested my original password back. Operator number 1 informed me I now had 2 open accounts so cancelled the old one & changed the password. I thought everything was OK at this point, that is until I tried to go on line. Call to tech person number 2, all the time waiting a very very long time,each time to talk to a person. I explained the problem & he like his predicessor did something on his computer & once again I thought it was fixed, until I tried to get on line again. Nada,nothing so call number 3 which by this time is in the afternoon, once again explained the problem & was informed that a password must have 4 letters minimum so he added the extra letter & hurray, back on line.
Now I discovered a new problem, I couldn't enter a blog on my blog. I guess my name & password got lost in the change, but hurray with the help of Blog support, I'm back & hopefully will have no more problems in this modern age of computerland. I love mine, I really do. I just don't understand the thing.

grandmothesmusings

Once Upon A Time They Were Legal

Having just celebrated the 4th of July, I couldn't help thinking about some of the fireworks that were available to us when I was a child. Firecrackers of course were plentiful, and a source I must ad of maimed fingers & other various serious injurys to the children who through lack of knowledge or the careless handling of them got more than they bargained for when stting them off. Boys used to put them in cans which propelled them quite a distance. I remember some were called ladyfingers, & if memeory serves me, these were smaller versions of the firecrackers. There was also another type of fireworks which exploded when thrown on the cement sidewalk. I think they were called cherry bombs
The one type of fireworks my younger sister & I were allowed to have were called sparklers. They were some type of a wire which had one end you could hold or place in the ground & the other was covered with the part which you lit. When lit,it gave off sparks which flickered & were quite pretty to watch. Our parents monitored their use since even they could cause burns, if one took hold of the end that had been lit, or if it was held too close to one's clothing.
My sister & I thought they were fun & we would move our arms in a circular fashion, creating circles of light with them.

Back east, God has His own little creation in the form of a lightning bug. In the summer,these wonderful little bugs had a little rear end that would light up & go off & on & my sister & I fascinated by them would catch them in glass jars. I have never seen them in this part of the country. I'm sure my two little granddaughters would have enjoyed catching & watching them as did my sister & I.

grandmothersmusings July 1, 2006
My purpose for writing grandmothersmusings is to let my grandchildren know what my life was like when I was growing up. In this electronic age, I'm sure it is hard to imagine what life was like without all the modern electronics they are used to. Had they not seen Little House On The Prairie which was an era before my time, I don't think they would have much of an idea of what life was like for me as a child.

I was born In Cleveland,Ohio in 1927. My Birth Cerificate says that my parents were living at 9690 Bessemer Ave. In an intersting coincidence, that was the street that eleven years later we would move to upon our return to Cleveland from my dad's hometown of Freemont Ohio where we had lived for seven years, during my ages 4 through 11.

My earliest memories of Cleveland were when my dad was absent from our home, We lived upstairs next to a church. I don't know exactly how long my dad was gone but know he left when my sister was a baby. The ealiest clear memory of my dad was him coming home on Christmas Day, but do have a hazy memory of standing in front of a door on a downstairs porch which was where he evidently lived before returning to the family.

My family consisted of my mother Irene, my dad Walter & a younger sister Virginia. We had an older half brother Leslie, my mom's son who lost his father when he was around 2 or 3 from the very bad flu which killed so many people in 1918. I also lost a cousin I never knew who was 8 monthes old at the time. Other family memmbers were sick with it but survived.

I will be writing more of that time of growing up during the great depression. It was a time when people learned to make do. I can never remember ever going hungry. Mom was an expert of making tasty dishes from simple things. Her Baked beans were much in demand at family get togethers. She though ,a city girl born & bred, learned how to can food in glass Mason jars, probably learning that from my dad's mom. I remember her making pickles & I'm not sure how to spell this, saurekraut in a large granite container.

These were days of doing without, and making do as it was called. I remember mom putting cardboard in my shoes when the soles had worn through. That didn't work too well if it rained. If the shoes still fit, they were taken to the shoemaker to have them "half soled" A process which involved putting new soles on them in the front of the shoe, sometimes adding a new heals in the back as well. Clothing was passed down from the oldest to the youngest child. Works great except when the younger child gets taller than the older sibling.

We were survivors. We had to be because we did not have the modern childhood preventative shots that our children have now.

I'll write more about that at a later time. You name it we caught it, brought it home to share with our siblings.
It was also the time when doctors actually made house calls. We had a wonderful family doctor who came when we were really sick. Otherwise home remedies were used, some of them very icky like mustard plasters.
I've survivied all these years so some of them must have worked.